Luca Toni double downs Sassuolo

Hellas Verona survived the early dismissal of goalkeeper Rafael to claim a 3-2 victory over Sassuolo in their Serie A clash this afternoon.

The visitors made a bright start to the match and Francesco Acerbi came close to giving them a lead when he met Nicola Sansone's cross and directed a header just over the bar.

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Verona then found themselves down to 10 men as Rafael rushed outside of his box to block a strike from Sansone with his hand and was shown a straight red card.

From the resulting free kick, Sansone stepped up and curled an effort towards the bottom corner, but substitute keeper Francesco Benussi tipped the effort behind.

Despite their numerical disadvantage, Verona took the lead on the half-hour mark as Juanito latched onto Jacopo Sala's through ball and kept his composure to chip an effort over the keeper.

However, it took Sassuolo just five minutes to level the scores as Vangelis Moras turned Domenico Berardi's cross into his own net.

Just past the hour mark, Verona retook the lead when Toni was played in by Juanito to slot in from close range.

Toni grabbed his second of the match eight minutes later when he powered his way through the Sassuolo defence and guided a low effort into the bottom corner.

Antonio Floro Flores pulled a goal back late on when he tapped in Simone Missiroli's cross, but it was not enough as the hosts held on to claim the points.